The user of liquid, semi-liquid or relatively viscous liquids, such as shampoos, creams, as well as foods (such as, purees, sauces, etc.) has always lacked a product that can be supplied in a regulated manner.
However, it is evident that, in practice, the user generally obtains a non-regulated product flow, which much of the time is in an amount that the user does not want.
The containers or bottles which contain these products are provided with threaded caps or stoppers having a pivotal section. However, a disadvantage of this type of cap is that when the user needs to remove the cap from the container, it is often found that it has been affixed too tightly around the neck of the container, which makes its removal very difficult.
An additional disadvantage of the prior art cap is that when the user sought to obtain a prescribed or definite quantity of product from the container, the user generally obtained an unwanted quantity.
Another disadvantage of these types of caps is that since they are usually manufactured with a removable piece, it is necessary to remove it from the container in order to extract its contents. This action may sometimes create a problem when the user replaces the removable piece again, since the piece may not be properly seated or threaded on the neck of the container. This creates a risk of losing the cap and, consequently, exposing the contents of the container to dirt, dampness, etc.
A further disadvantage of these caps is that the majority of them are manufactured in four or five pieces and, therefore, it is necessary to have individual moldings, machines and operators for each component, thereby increasing the manufacturing costs.
Based on the above, it was concluded that, in order to avoid the need to use machines and operators for each component part, as was required for the prior art caps, it would be necessary to create a combination of components which could be coupled together during a purely mechanical assembly operation, and once assembled, they would remain firmly interlocked and fastened together.
Furthermore, it was found that in order to reduce the number of components, it was necessary to re-design and simplify the components so that they could be integrally manufactured by a single machine, in order to allow for mechanical assembly, thereby reducing the number of stages and machines in the assembly operation.
In accordance with the above, the present invention relates to a cap for collapsible bottles and the like, which cap reduces the number of components to only two, by providing a design which can be molded on a single injection-molding machine.
Additionally, with the cap of the present invention, it is unnecessary to remove the cap from the bottle in order to extract the container's contents, since, simply by turning one of its components, the desired quantity of product can be removed from the container. The cap includes a detachable ring which is broken when first used, which guarantees that the product reaches the consumer having the same quality as when the bottles were filled, thus preventing the products from being tampered with during handling between the manufacturer and the consumer. Similarly, when the consumer wishes to close the container, he need only turn the cap with an opposite movement in order to return it to its original position.
Similarly, with the cap design of the present invention, the user can regulate the desired quantity of the product.